Crucible
by TheNewIdea
Summary: In which self-preservation, the possible ruining of childhood, supernatural forces and death occur all at once. A crossover of several different things but stays mainly with Phineas and Ferb canon. Rated M for violence, End of the World scenarios, sarcasm, language, sexual references.


**Crystal Cove, Virginia**

The basement of the police department was cold, dark and damp. The dim light of the candescent lamp on the table in middle of the room was humming annoyingly as if there were a million flies in the room at the same frequency. The large amount of paperwork that surrounded the desk on all sides was enough to tell you that whoever it was, was behind by several months and most likely in danger of being fired.

The desk belonged to John White, the Chief of Police. The reason why he was behind was because of the supernatural attacks that had been going on for the past five weeks. Then again, not much happened in Crystal Cove anyway, so it wasn't like there was anything else to do than deal with the supernatural.

Walking into the basement office, Scooby-Doo shook his head in disbelief, for he always knew John to be neat and orderly. It was obviously a step down the totem pole.

"Any particular reason why you asked for me specifically, John?" Scooby asked, as John, who was behind him, closed the door.

"Are you familiar with the OWCA?" John began, asking a question of his own.

Scooby nodded, "The Organization without a Cool Acronym. Every respectable animal's heard of it. What does that have to do with Crystal Cove?"

John moved over to his desk and pressed the playback button on his answering machine. A gruff voice could be heard, almost as if were gargling rocks, barely audible. Scooby guessed that whoever it was, was in extreme pain and somewhere underground.

"Listen to me" it began, "There's not a lot of time. Something attacked us. We don't know what. Some kind of monster…If you can hear this, send help. Danville's gone. We'll try to make our way to-"

White noise interrupted the feed, cutting it off and leaving the rest of the distress signal unfinished. John only stared gravely at Scooby-Doo, who remained relatively indifferent.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Scooby asked defensively, "It's not like I can just go to Danville on a whim. I've got people I need to see to! Things I have to take care of!"

John shook his head in disagreement, "If my sources are correct whatever happened to Danville mirrored that of Crystal Cove five years ago. I'm sure you remember the incident."

Scooby nodded, it was something that he tried to forget. No matter how hard he tried it always seemed to come back around, haunting him like the dog he literally was.

"There is nothing you can say that will make me relive that" Scooby continued, "You can ridicule and chastise me all you want, but I stand by my decision. Besides, I think I've suffered enough."

John sighed deeply, obviously he hoped that Scooby would agree. He hoped that the dog still had some morals left in him, but apparently they died five years ago. The only thing that Scooby-Doo was concerned with was himself, he had placed self-preservation above all other needs, including personal relationships. The reason for this was simple, the Great Dane had his heart broken too many times to the point where he no longer cared what happened to anyone else, in favor of saving himself and what little heart he had left.

"Those people are going to die" John began once again, switching tactics, "How can you sit by and do nothing!"

Scooby laughed, "It's really easy" he answered, "I just sit back…and do nothing."

John was about to say something else but Scooby cut him off before he could say anything.

"How many times did you think you were going to die? Out of those times how many of them were milliseconds away from it? If you even lived a fraction of my life you would do the same. Self-preservation is the only safe thing to do now. Everything will get you killed."

Scooby turned around and made his way towards the door. John, in a last ditch effort, offered the one thing that corrupts good men and makes bad men evil.

"How much?" John said finally

Scooby rolled his eyes, for he knew what John was doing for he had used it before. The last time John offered money it was barely enough to cover expenses, this time it was going to be a lot more.

"50,000 cash" Scooby answered, "50,000 cash and a ticket out of this godforsaken town back to New York."

John nodded, he had no idea where he was going to get that much money, the New York ticket however, was more feasible and at the very least would be enough to buy him some time.

"Done" John replied, "When do you leave?"

Scooby laughed sarcastically, insulted by the question.

"Now" the dog answered, "Remember last time?"

John scratched his head, his memory was faded when it came to details.

"It took about a week to correct the problem" Scooby explained, "Depending on the situation it'll be more of the same. I want half when I get there, half when I get back. You short me at any point and I'm watching Danville burn."

John huffed, personally he thought that Scooby was being unreasonable, but he saw little time to argue. Without another moment's hesitation, John escorted the dog out of the building and towards the nearest bus station.

**Danville Sewer System**

**Danville, Tri-State Area (Somewhere in Middle America)**

Perry the Platypus, Heinz Doofenshrimtz, Phineas, Ferb, Candace, Major Monogram, Carl and Vanessa Doofenshrimtz were all huddled in a circle around a small campfire. They had been sitting here for the past five hours, waiting out the storm that was going on above and trying to make sense of the past day and a half.

"Overall I'd say that this has been a very interesting day" Ferb exclaimed as he struggled to get warm, "I've met all these nice people, survived a monster attack, witnessed the death of my parents and to top it off I had a lovely cheese sandwich this morning."

Phineas groaned, not only was that not in the least sense happy but it was also incredibly pompous and overly optimistic given the situation, in short, the most unrealistic thing he heard all day, which given the current company, was definitely saying something.

"Will you shut up Ferb?" Phineas begged, "All you ever do is talk! What suddenly a monster attacks your house and you become sociable?"

Ferb laughed, "No" he replied, "I just feel like talking…Mum and Dad always told me that when I'm sad that the best thing to do is to talk about it. So I'm talking."

Candace only stared at the fire saying nothing. The Major looked curiously at her and then at Carl, who was busy fiddling with a Rubik Cube.

"Carl" Monogram chastised, "Say something to her!"

Carl shrugged and set down the Rubik Cube indifferently. He then awkwardly began what was his best attempt at small talk.

"Nice weather we're having" Carl said, "In the…sewer."

Candace still said nothing, her eyes becoming dark and black abysses, devoid of life and feeling.

Carl immediately motioned to Heinz, who was busy tending to Perry's recently acquired side wound. Doofenshrimtz came over as carefully as he could, making sure to step over Phineas, who had begun to lay down looking for some much needed sleep.

"What's going on?" Heinz asked, "Is she doing any better?"

Carl shook her head, "No. See for yourself."

Heinz looked at Candace and then at her eyes. Almost immediately he felt nothing but pity and overwhelming grief, for he understood what it was like to lose one's parents so suddenly.

"Candace" Heinz whispered softly, trying to be as comforting as possible, "Candace listen to me. I know you're in there. We need you to come back. You're the Rock remember? And what is a ship without an anchor!"

Candace remained unresponsive, the only indicator that she gave that she was alive was the rise and fall of her chest as the rank sewer air went into her lungs.

"Candace" Heinz continued, "I'm sorry for what happened. Really I am. But is this what they would want? I don't think so."

Heinz casually turned back towards Perry, who was being caressed by Vanessa, smiles on both of their faces as they whispered sweet everythings into each other's ears.

"I'm not much of a father" Heinz said as he focused his attention back on Candace, "And I didn't know yours. But I do know this. Any man who calls himself a man and a father, loves his kids. I know that he would be proud of you because I'm proud of you and I've only just met you today."

Candace still remained unresponsive, it seemed that nothing would get her out of it. Doofenshrimtz did the only thing he could do and embraced her as tight as he could, wishing for a moment that all the pain would leave her and enter him.

Perry meanwhile, after coughing up a good bit of blood, checked the battery life on his sat phone and checked for any messages, hoping that his distress signal had be heard by someone, preferably someone could who help with the situation.

"What do we do now?" Perry asked no one in particular

"We sit here until rescue comes" Monogram answered, "That's all we can do Perry. That's all we're able to."

Perry shook his head, "Surely there must be something we can do. Sooner or later they'll figure out a way to get down here if they haven't already. What then? We sit here for much longer and we die sir, it's as simple as that."

Monogram said nothing and only opened up his sleeping bag and tried to the best of his ability to block out the smell. Heinz meanwhile, went back to tending to Perry while Ferb sang a quiet lullaby as he began to dose. Eventually Ferb found himself dreaming of what his life used to be, before the monsters, before his parents' untimely death and before this morning when the world turned upside down on its head for seemingly no reason. For the first time in his life Ferb dreamed about yesterday and how he would give anything to have it back.


End file.
